Islam In America

Barack Obama and the Middle East

If you’re anywhere in or near Chicago, Illinois, on February 5, 2013, consider scheduling a stop at 5:30 p.m. for a Middle East Forum sponsored by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

“Turmoil and Turbulence: Barack Obama and the Middle East 2.0″ is the topic for a presentation including Haleh Esfandiari (pictured), Director, Middle East Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Aaron David Miller, Vice President, New Initiatives, and Distinguished Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and David Ottaway, Senior Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The discussion is moderated by Rachel Bronson, Vice President, Studies, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

It takes place at the Chicago Club, 81 East Van Buren Street, Chicago, Illinois. Cost for those who are not members of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs is $20, and business attire is required.

This program is cosponsored with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Women and Sharia"No group is more harmed by sharia than Muslim women -- a reflection in part of the patriarchal tribal culture out of which Islamic law emerged."
Admittedly, the writer is Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a controversial figure in Islam.
However, she does have a point: men and women are treated differently

Erasing History?"The recent vandalization of Nimrud and Hatra by the so-called Islamic State—and the destruction of lesser shrines in Libya by local Islamists, which started in 2012—is not an isolated phenomenon. It stems from deep-seated pathologies afflicting the Muslim world," writes Ann Marlowe in The Daily

Meanwhile, Back in Pakistan....The idiots have targeted and killed Christians on their way to church yesterday (and a couple of Paki police in the bargain) -- idiots because they're suicide bombers and idiots because killing people who have different beliefs than yours is a mug's game.
Here's one place to read more about this

Islam and Middle School in NYCSharon Otterman, a reporter for The New York TimesMK/I> penned a thoughtful article on Sandra Ibrahim. The middle school student's tentative steps toward wearing hijab have been met with derision, teasing and hazing.
This writer wonders whether this Arab custom from the seventh century really

Why is ISIS Afraid of History?ISIS began bulldozing the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq last week, reports the Agence France Presse
Why is ISIS afraid of history? Best guess: they're uneducated.
History is humanity's backstory, and tearing down the past does not erase it.